Carol Gray, founder of the Gray Center for Social Learning and Understanding, explains that social stories describe situations in terms of perspectives, social cues and common responses. In our experience at DOORS, social stories are written in a specific format which enables the reader to develop social understanding centered around a concept, skill, or situation. While our focus is academics, we cannot separate academics from the need to address behaviors and social skills. Particularly for children with comprehension challenges, social understanding is a critical component of their program. Even when looking at illustrations in a picture book, social understanding is necessary to grasp perspectives, emotions, cause and effect relationships, and inferences.
There are quite a few social stories books out there, but did you know that you can write them yourself? The benefit to writing them yourself is that they are tailored to the child’s social needs. Visit the Gray Center’s webpage on writing social stories for more information.